Council approves Proposed Budget

The Greeley City Council met once again for their weekly meeting tonight to vote on the Proposed Budget for 2012.

"I anticipate a vote in favor of the Proposed Budget this evening," said council member Robb Casseday.

Finance Director Tim Nash took the podium to go over a brief synopsis of the Proposed Budget before allowing the council members to vote on the budget.

Nash showed the council two pie graphs signifying the percentage of budget being used in Greeley's expenditures and incoming revenue. Charges and services took up the bulk of incoming revenue, where transfers made up the largest percentage of expenditures.

The Proposed Budget is broken down into two parts; the Operating Budget and the Capital Improvement Budget. The Operating Budget is a detailed projection of all income and expenses based on annual revenue. The Capital Improvement Budget is a financial plan in scheduling capital projects and equipment purchases for the community.

Last year's Capital Improvement Budget was $99.1 million. This year's Capital Improvement Budget was much lower at $67.8 million, which is even lower than its initial budget of $69.2 million.

The Operating Budget was averaged out at $198.8 million. The Capital Improvement Budget averaged at $67.8 million; making the overall budget come out to $266.6 million.

The motion to pass the Proposed Budget was accepted with a vote of 5 to 1. The only one opposed to the budget was council member Mike Finn.

"The way it's written, I don't agree with this," said Finn.

Greeley 2012 Proposed Budget

The Greeley City Council went over the Proposed Budget for this upcoming year at tonight's meeting.

The budget totaled at $266,577,728.

The budget included an average pay increase of 2.6% for all general employees, as well as an 11% pay increase for all police dispatchers.

In the $181.5 million revenue that is predicted to be produced in 2012, $101.8 million of that will come from Charges for Services, which is the largest portion of revenue with 56.1%.

The large majority of expenditures by fund will be going towards water; 70.5% of all capital projects will be water related. Among the projects that were mentioned in the budget was the Bellvue Transmission Line, which was by far the largest and most expensive of all the project expenditures.

Near the end of the meeting there was some dispute over why the council members had not received the proposed budget at an early time in order to go over the items listed. Council member Mike Finn was one of two council members who stated his anger with certain aspects of the budget as well as its delayed arrival.

"I am too disappointed to receive this last minute," said council member Donna Sapienza.

The City Council will meet again on Oct. 18 to further discuss the budget, as well as make a motion to accept or reject it.

Oktoberfest in Greeley

The Greeley City Council covered the events of this upcoming weekend involving the 22nd annual Greeley Oktoberfest tonight at their weekly meeting.

This event will be held at historic Lincoln Park on 10th Avenue and 8th Street. There will be beer, brats, polka, German dancers, craft vendors, and a children's area for everyone to enjoy. Admission to the event is free. The event begins on Friday, Sept. 23, from 5-10 p.m. It continues on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Games begin at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. There is also a baking competition to find the best rye bread, best pie, and best rival kuga (German coffee cake).

Proceeds from the event go to both the Downtown Development Authority and to the Greeley Transitional House.

"It's a celebration of all of the farmers who provide all of our natural produce for the next year," said Greeley Mayor Tom Norton.

Oktoberfest originated in Germany in 1810 in celebration of a king's wedding.

Greeley's first Oktoberfest was held at a UNC professor's backyard in 1971.

"Like St. Patrick's Day when everyone is Irish, everybody is German during Oktoberfest," said Allison Hamling, the recipient of a certificate for the Heritage Program of Greeley.

Getting Started

My name is John William Connolly, but most of my friends call me Will. I am a junior at the University of Northern Colorado. My major is journalism and my minor is English. I plan to one day be a famous movie critic for a prestigious newspaper or magazine.

I am taking a course called JMC352 Reporting Contemporary Issues in which our class will be covering a variety of different topics involving the Greeley City Council. Our class will attend a number of city council meetings. We will be asked to interview both experts and actors (everyday people) about their opinions following the meetings. I have never personally witnessed a city council meeting and am very excited to see the happenings of next week's meeting.

I plan to learn a lot from these city council meetings, as well as to grasp a better understanding of how the government process works.

I am very excited to start blogging because I have always wanted to have a place to write down and publish my thoughts. I am confident in the fact that I think that I am a moderately adequate writer and can articulate my thoughts quite easily. Blogging is different from any other college assignment I have been assigned because it is automatically published, and therefore you must make sure you don't have any mistakes or typos before publishing your thoughts. I think that I will thoroughly enjoy blogging and will continue to do so long after this class has concluded.